Active propaganda messaging has persuaded Americans they are living in the darkest hours of history and life itself will be wiped out within 10 years. In reality, we live in the best of times in world history as measured across a wide range of critical metrics. Yet the constant barrage of negativity and hostility motivates individuals’ stress response.
Woman makes a dumb remark about a teen girl’s t-shirt. This in turn is blown up on social media and quickly devolves into a community of outrage in the real world and takes on a life of its own.
TWTR’s share price falls over 20%. And study finds that 6% of Twitter’s adult users account for 73% of all political tweets, which tend towards hostile negativity.
Much media and social media messaging is about doom, gloom and outrage even though life is, on average, among the best of times in history. This creates a warped perspective where we only see the bad and miss all that is working well.
A majority of online influencer accounts on Instagram appear to use fraud to inflate their number of followers, says a survey firm.